California yacht struck island in fatal wreck

June 12, 2012|Reuters

By Ronnie Cohen

FAIRFAX, Calif., June 12 (Reuters) - A yacht wreck thatkilled four crewmen in a race from Southern California to Mexicooccurred because the sailboat struck an island, not anothervessel as first believed, an independent sailing panel said onTuesday.

The finding from a U.S. Sailing Association panel confirms acrash scenario that U.S. Coast Guard investigators formulatedwithin days of the wreck. But it fails to explain why the37-foot (11.3-meter) Aegean slammed into an island. Theassociation promised a full report next month.

The panel determined that the yacht ran aground aftergathering material from its satellite tracking device andinformation from race organizers.

"Following extensive research, the panel is confident that agrounding on North Coronado Island is the cause of accident,"U.S. Sailing said in a statement.

The Coronado Islands are off the coast of the Mexican stateof Baja California.

The Aegean set sail from Southern California on April 27 tocompete in the 65-year-old Newport to Ensenada Race. The boatdisappeared from satellite tracking at about 1:30 a.m. on April28.

The weekend of the crash, the Newport Ocean SailingAssociation, which sponsors the race, issued a statement sayingthe Aegean appeared to have collided with a larger ship.

But a GPS record tracking the yacht's path showed it sailingfor more than three hours on a collision course straight intoNorth Coronado Island, Coast Guard Lieutenant Bill Burwell saidlast month.

On Tuesday, Coast Guard spokesman Henry Dunphy said hisagency's examination of the accident was continuing and thatinvestigators were using recovered pieces of the vessel todetermine the cause of the mishap. They also have interviewedformer members of the Aegean's crew.

All four crew members on the boat at the time of crashperished, including the Aegean's 49-year-old skipper, aerospaceengineer Theo Mavromatis.

The wreck followed an April 14 racing accident that killedfive sailors near the Farallon Islands off the coast of SanFrancisco. The Farallon crash prompted the Coast Guard totemporarily suspend racing in the Pacific Ocean off northernCalifornia.